The present invention is related to selecting meteorological data, e.g., wind and temperature data relevant to an aircraft's descent trajectory, and updating the aircraft trajectory based on the selected data. More specifically, the invention relates to producing and providing a smaller subset of relevant meteorological data from which an aircraft's descent trajectory can be optimized.
Meteorological data at way points along an aircraft trajectory are often considered for determining an estimated time of arrival and fuel burn during an aircraft's flight. For example, a flight management system (FMS) might consider wind velocity and temperature data uploaded to the FMS from a ground station via a communications system while the aircraft is in flight. The volume of such meteorological data typically is great and can be provided along many points in the aircraft trajectory. However, limitations in available memory and available bandwidth often hamper the amount and timing of uploaded meteorological data. Such data is often provided to the FMS of an aircraft at the start point, the end point, and perhaps one or a few way points along the aircraft's trajectory. Many times the way points between the start point and the end point are selected based upon the location of ground navigation aids (Navaids) along the trajectory of the aircraft.
Limits in the data can compromise the accuracy of FMS forecasts based on the data. As well, an aircraft is occasionally given a clearance to alter its trajectory en route, which results in a need to quickly update forecasts, sometimes without planned waypoints. Many longer flights will have long legs in cruise with no waypoints and no way for the data to account for weather changes between planned waypoints. For example, changes in wind velocity and direction during a long cruise without updated data during that leg can result in errors in the forecasted wind, and thus in the time of arrival computations.